Enhancement of the photocatalytic Degradation of methylene blue by sonication

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 department of physics, Qassim university

2 physics Department , Qassim University

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of sonication on the degradation activity of MB in an aqueous solution. This process is in the presence of high-quality nanoparticles (NPs) TiO2 catalysts and under UV- light irradiation. It was was under taken using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-Vis spectrophotometer. XRD analysis confirmed the presence of pure anatase phase and the calculated crystallite size of about 54 nm. The band gap energy was found to be 3.2 eV, which corresponds to anatase phase. The degradation activities of methylene blue (MB) were evaluated for photocatalysis and sonophotocatalysis processes separately. According to the results obtained, it was shown that the degradation of MB during sonophotocatalysis of TiO2 catalysts was accomplished in a shorter time, which was due to the enhancement of formation of free hydroxyl radicals during sonication. The enhancement of photocatalytic degradation of methylene Blue was significant compared to performing just photocatalysis.

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